The Publication For Garage Professionals

ONE OF the most important aspects of insuring your MOT testing station is making sure you have the right cover for your business, but this can often depend on the size and variety of your operation.

For example, if it’s just a small garage and you operate as a sole trader without any employees, then there will be certain liability insurances you may not need. However there are certain things all MOT testers will want to have covered.

Equipment can be insured under tools and machinery cover. This means that if you’re unfortunate enough to be in a position where your tools or an expensive piece of equipment is stolen, your livelihood wouldn’t suffer as you would be able to replace it through your insurance. You can also cover your building(s) and everything in it with building and contents cover.

If your business employs anyone then, by law, you will need to take out employers’ liability insurance. If you conduct work on the cars by repairing and changing parts, then you might find that having product liability cover is also useful. Product liability insurance will make sure you’re covered in the event a part you have fitted to a customer’s car breaks or causes a problem with the car.

Most MOT businesses will usually have customers visiting their premises to drop off and collect cars, which means it would be wise to also take out public liability insurance. This would ensure that you are financially protected in the unfortunate event of an accident occurring on your premises that leaves a customer injured and seeking damages.

If you operate a collection and delivery service as part of your MOT packages, then you will need to take out insurance for driving those vehicles on the road. If the cars are collected using a flatbed truck, then having goods-in-transit cover will insure the vehicle in convoy. If you are driving any vehicles on UK roads as part of your business then you will need to take out a motor trade road risk insurance policy. This may be included with your car garage insurance policy, and like a private car policy, it has three levels of cover: third party, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive.

As a motor trader you may come into contact with cars that have a value that significantly exceeds your own vehicles, and so to avoid having higher insurance costs you could take out split indemnity.

If you’re unsure about what aspects of your MOT testing centre need insuring, then it would be worth sitting down to assess what you couldn’t afford to replace if an incident were to happen, and then you can make sure they are covered when taking out a Car Garage insurance policy.